U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901

/||\ ---------------------------------------------
/ || \ UCIP Starfleet Command, Fifth Fleet
/ || \ U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901
.-/ || \-. Fleet Captain Tebrun Lora Kor, Commanding
./ || \. ---------------------------------------------
.-_-. || .-_-. Simulation Teaser
.-_ \||/ _-. -[ SD 240107.23 ]-

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Fleet Captain Tebrun Lora Kor opened his eyes and looked around the plain
grey stone room he was being held in... for at least the fifth time. The
room didn't appear to have changed: a ten meter cube of plain grey stone
with no ceiling. Far overhead was the room's only light, which bathed the
room in pale, cool tones. Lora Kor, after some difficulty, had climbed one
of the walls to check for an escape... and found that the room appeared to
be suspended in nothingness. He had even amused himself by walking along
the upper edge of the walls, systematically testing each edge, something
that had tested his balance and his equanimity. Each edge was at least 20
centimeters wide, so it had been challenging without being actively
life-threatening. However, he had failed to find an escape.

Other than himself, there was nothing in the room except a plain wooden
table... and the single object on the table. About a half-meter square, the
latter object was covered in complex duotronics of a type the Captain hadn't
seen or worked with in two lifetimes. Five days earlier, 40 minutes of
meditations had brought Lonara Kor, one of his past hosts, to the surface.
70 minutes after that, Lonara had stepped back, throughly convinced that the
object on the table was a bomb. The buried Tebrun host had remarked in an
amused way that a bomb was hardly a proper gift from an "ally." Even more
strange, however, Lonara had reported that the bomb's triggering circuits
seemed to be tied into only one area: manipulation of the bomb itself. To
wit, the only way to trigger the explosive was to attempt to disarm it.
Tebrun had come back to the surface, and then simply refused to attempt to
disarm the bomb. That had been five days ago.

Since there was neither food nor water in his cell, and twelve hours of
patient waiting had failed to produce any, Tebrun had accessed another Trill
mental discipline. Without water, a Trill like a human could only survive
for about 48 hours. The pa'zhara mental discipline, however, allowed the
symbiont to manipulate the metabolism of the host, essentially sending the
humanoid body into suspended animation.

Tebrun had awoken once a day, at the same time every day, for about five
minutes... long enough to determine if there had been any changes to his
prison. Each day, there had not been, and he had submerged back into the
pa'zhara. Looking around on day five, he noticed that his first impression
that there had again been no changes was wrong. Sitting in the corner, in
an odd four-legged variant of a lotus position was a Taeren, watching him.
Tebrun brought himself fully awake and nodded greetings at his visitor.

The Taeren was thin, willowy... almost emaciated. Male, he appeared to have
no facial hair. His face was strangely elongated, the eyes almond-shaped,
the nose long, thin, and tapered. His hairless head had only the smallest
of ears, but was domed in four places and thicker in back than in front. He
was regarding Lora Kor with a somewhat amused look.

"You did not wish to deactivate the device?" the Taeren asked him.

The Captain matched the man's amused tone. "No, I did not," he said, then
cleared his throat when the last word cracked. Starting again, he said,
"the 'device' would have exploded only if I disarmed it correctly. Had I
failed, I would have killed myself, innocents, or both. Had I succeeded, I
would not have been killed and noone else would have suffered... but I could
achieve that exact same result by simply ignoring the device." The Captain
smirked, very slightly. "Doing nothing was therefore my best option," he
concluded.

"Ah," the Taeren said, nodding as if that were significant.

"Is this a test, then?" the Captain asked, standing slowly, licking his
lips. His body was asking for water very loudly. Lora Kor ignored it as
best he could.

The Taeren also stood. "There are no tests," he said, "only situations in
which Na'Mori places us. How we react to the situations teaches Na'Mori who
we are." Suddenly, the Captain realized that while he was talking, the
Taeren was not; his lips weren't moving. Either he could hear the alien's
thoughts, or his words were being projected into the room somehow. The
Taeren paused, then continued. "Your people are very determined," he said.

Lora Kor nodded slowly, unsure of where this was going. No response
immediately presented itself, so he remained silent, waiting to see if the
Taeren would continue.

The Taeren cocked his head, as if expecting a response, or perhaps listening
to a sound only he could hear. After a few seconds, he smiled. "Your
people are strong enough for what awaits them, Captain," he said at last.
"Come. We will join them." With a blue-green flicker, part of the wall
vanished, to be replaced by an opening and a plain grey stone path. The
path was of the same grey stone as the prison-room, and appeared to hang in
nothingness, with only that single wan light overhead. The Taeren turned to
leave.

Lora Kor nodded again, but did not follow. This treatment was getting to be
a bit much. "Perhaps there will be some water when we arrive," he said
lightly. "Maybe even a bit of food. Surely you know enough of our peoples
to know we require periodic nourishment," he said. The Captain clasped his
hands behind his back as the Taeren turned back... and was surprised to see
the man was openly grinning at him. Annoyingly, the grin was somewhat
patronizing, the smile of a pet owner after the pet has performed a
particularly difficult trick, or a parent as his or her child walks for the
first time. The Captain damped down the annoyance.

"Of course, Captain... rude of us. Such will be provided, of course," the
Taeren said, indicating the doorway with one arm, still smiling.

The Captain unclasped his hands and walked toward the opening. "You never
told me your name, by the way," Lora Kor said.

Surprisingly, the remark seemed to draw blood, but for what reason the
Captain couldn't imagine. The Taeren looked over at him and said something
that sounded like, "Na'Mori has not yet seen enough of me to grant me a
name."

Pondering this, the Captain followed the nameless Taeren along the blank
stone path.

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Crew Roster:
Commanding Officer: FCapt. Tebrun Lora Kor (Jester)
Executive Officer: Cmdr. William Daren (Daren)
Marine Commandant: Col. Jeremy Ironside (Fraser)
Command Liaison Interface: LCdr. Savant (Savant)
Chief of the Boat: MCPO Olme Tlaloco (Tlaloco)
Chief Tactical Officer: LCdr. Sieven Drexler (Garstini)
Assistant Tactical: Ens. J'aren Mayo (Spork)
Assistant Tactical: Ens. Kyle Marcy (Marcy)
Intelligence Officer: Lt. (JG) Kariasa Ma'Aru (Kari)
Company Commander: 1Lt. Eric Moore (Alffred)
Squadron Leader: Maj. Thomas Wayne (Masters)
Squadron Leader: 1Lt. Natalia Petrovna (Phishie)
Chief Flight Operations: Cmdr. Fornan Dejat (McC)
Chief Engineer: LCdr. Zunite Oswald (Sonya)
Assistant Engineer: Lt. Jack C. Farley (CCC)
Assistant Engineer: Lt. Aramis Skylooker (Skylooker)
Chief Science Officer: LCdr. Kathryn Janeway (Kath)
Assistant Medical: Lt. (JG) Ungtae Brie (Aggie)
Reorsan Liaison: Lt. (JG) Nikkos (Heiwa)

On Extended Leave of Absense:
None!

Positions Available:
None!

----------
Ross Glenn aka Jester
Fleet Captain Tebrun Lora Kor, U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901
http://www.jestertrek.com/coro2400/